The romance was blooming.
Bartholomew seemed torn. At the last minute, however, he came aboard the boat.
They set out, running slowly due southwest of the island. Sean grew excited at a blip on the screen, but a study of the sea charts showed that it was a World War II ship that had gone down in 1943; at war’s end, it was already becoming part of a growing reef.
“Wait,” Sean said. “Uncle Jamie, let’s bring her around. If there is something here, that could be a reason that it has never been found!”
“Sean, good call—worth an exploration, at least,” David said. “That happened with the old British ship Renegade in the Bay of Bengal. She had twisted beneath a trawler that went down several hundred years later.”
Barry was filming the discussion. “Wow, yeah, we might have found something!”
His excitement was such that he forgot that he was filming.
“Ahem, camera, my friend!” Jay reminded him.
“Let’s break out the diving gear and the casements for the cameras,” Sean said. “David, obviously, you and Katie. Jamie—”
“I’ll be aboard, keeping watch on the line and my boat!” Jamie said firmly.
“You want me on board or in the water?” Jay asked.
Sean seemed to hesitate for just a second.
He doesn’t trust Jay! Vanessa thought.
“What about me?” Barry asked.
“Barry, you’re up here, camera ready, with Jamie,” Sean said.
Barry frowned. “I—”
“You’re the soundman, Barry, and you’re good with a camera, too. Be ready when we come up,” Sean said.
“Where do you want me?” Bill asked.
“Make it a threesome with Vanessa and me,” Sean said. “And, Jake—you tag on with Katie and David.”
He had done it again, Vanessa realized—divided the old group. Jamie would watch Barry. Marty was onshore, along with Ted and Jaden, keeping an eye on Lew and Zoe. Liam—David’s cousin and Sean’s close friend—would be watching Jay. David would have his eye on Jake.
Barry seemed unhappy but resigned. He brightened while the others got into their gear and asked Jamie if he had any fishing equipment.
Jamie scowled. “You’ll be catching the divers!”
“No!” Barry protested. “I’ll be catching fresh fish for dinner!”
Jamie shook his head but assured Barry he had fishing equipment, but that Barry needed to remember that he was in charge of filming when the divers surfaced.
As Vanessa slipped her mask and regulator on and held the mask in place in order to slip over the hull backward, she noticed Bartholomew. He was standing aft, looking back at the island.
As they descended, the water was clear and beautiful until they reached thirty-three feet and paused to pressurize. Another twenty feet down, and while visibility was still good, the sunlight didn’t penetrate as well.
Vanessa saw the hull of the old World War II vessel and followed Sean around the portside, aware that Bill was keeping pace with her. Sean had the camera, and Vanessa was glad.
It was the camera lens that seemed to play tricks on her.
Sean motioned Bill, instructing him down to the sand where something peculiar seemed to be stuck just beneath the vessel.
It was while they were occupied that Vanessa saw the figurehead.
It was just feet in front of the men. She wouldn’t be leaving her partners to follow it, to see if it was real.
To see if it led her to an old treasure again, a pendant.
Or a dead body.
She moved toward it in the water and realized that it was actually within a torn segment of the World War II ship’s hull. No. She wasn’t going to follow—not without her fellow divers knowing that she was entering the wreck.
She turned, giving a massive kick with her flippers, only to realize that she was already inside the ship. She moved toward the hole through which she had entered, only to discover that the ship seemed to have shifted; the entryway—the exit!—was no more.
And there was no figurehead to be seen.
For a split second, she nearly panicked.
It had all scrambled her mind; she was going ever-so-slightly crazy—and now it was going to trap her and kill her.
She braced herself, checked her air gauge and her compass, and knew that her partners weren’t far away. She moved in the opposite direction from the false lure of the figurehead with the face of Dona Isabella that didn’t really exist.
The tear in the giant craft was just ahead of her. As she reached it, she saw that the ship had probably been sunk by a torpedo—there was a giant hole extending beneath its watery graveyard in the sand. And beneath it…
There was something.
It looked like a broken shaft of wood. There were clumps and lumps all over it, encrusted in barnacles and sea growth. She reached for it with gloved hands and struggled to pull it free. It gave, but it was heavy.
She banged against the hull of the ship with her dive knife. A second later, Sean came through water toward her, his eyes showing concern through his mask.